I guess it's where your priorities are, quailnut. You put your finger on it in that Canada does not stand alone. As far as defense goes, Canada is always first in in the big ones, shoulder to shoulder with its allies. It stays clear of calamitous foreign adventures that drain a nation's soul, builds an admired multicultural social system, the strongest financial and banking system in the world, and our casualties per capita are the highest of ISAF forces in Afghanistan.
Canada does not share the near worship of the military as the United States nor the noted peculiar contradiction of the unwillingness of Americans to serve in the armed forces, elites and masses alike. (See The New American Militarism; How Americans are Seduced by War by Andrew Bacevich, Oxford, 270 pp , 16 pounds.) We're not into preaching and imposing democracy at the point of a rifle. Expensive stuff.
I don't know of any country that has ever been judged on its responsible independance by its defence expenditures. The current insurgencies taught us that size has its limits. But the point I was suggesting is Canada, biggest customer of 34 US states, biggest supplier of US gas and oil, active US partner in the war on terror, doesn't buttle to any country when it comes to fending for its citizens.
